The exhibition presents a large selection of the exceptional collection of paintings held in Avignon. Through works produced over the last 60 years by the great names of contemporary art - Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Niele Toroni, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Miquel Barcelo, Robert Combas, Enzo Cucchi, Julian Schnabel and Jean Charles Blais - the exhibition takes account of the major upheavals in the recent history of painting. Declared dead in the 1960s when conceptual and minimal art took centre stage, painting made a dramatic comeback on the art scene in the 1980s, and is now once again an essential medium.

Although Yvon Lambert was one of the great promoters of the new avant-gardes in the 1960s (conceptual and minimal art, land art) and later of photography, video and installation, it is interesting to note that painting appears in his collection like a common thread, bringing together some of the most emblematic works in the history of contemporary art.